Arizona Department of Health Services Director on Implementing Proposition 203
Here are some interesting statements from Will Humble, the Director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, the agency that will oversee Arizona’s medical marijuana law.
On how DHS will determine which applicants get one of the 124 dispensary licenses:
“There are probably a number of ways to do it, but 3 come to mind right away. We could, for example:
- Use some kind of first-come first-served process and simply approve the first 124 complete dispensary applications;
- Place the complete applications in a pool and have some kind of random drawing on a particular date; or
- Evaluate the complete applications using some kind of objective criteria (such as the professional quality of their business model, security plan, customer validation and inventory system etc) and select the best applications from the stack for approval.
Method 3 is probably the best because we’d be able to select the best of the qualified applicants”
On the proposed implementation schedule:
“Implementing the Act will take at least 4 months… and we expect to be able to accept our first applications for medical marijuana (Cannabis) cards and dispensaries in early April, 2011. In the mean time, we’ll be developing the Administrative Code (Rules) for actually operating and regulating the program. Here is our schedule for Rule development:
December 17, 2010: ADHS posts an initial informal draft of the Rules.
December 17, 2010 – January 7, 2011: ADHS receives informal (electronic) public comment on the initial informal draft Rules.
January 31, 2011: ADHS posts official draft Rules for public comment.
January 31, 2011 – February 18, 2011: ADHS receive public comment on a revised draft of the Rules.
February 15 – 17, 2011: ADHS holds 3 public meetings about the draft Rules
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 – 1 pm, 250 N 17th Ave., Phoenix
Wednesday, February, 16, 2011 – 1 pm, 400 W. Congress, Room 222, Tucson
Thursday, February 17, 2011 – 1 pm, 250 N 17th Ave., Phoenix
March 28, 2011: ADHS publishes the final Rules that will be used to implement the Act.”